i tend to think the "woman waiting by the shore for someone she loves to return after a long time" is generally a woman waiting for her husband or lover, so to have the narrator of this be a woman waiting for her mother is a nice switch. it's very melancholy but i like it.

That was one of the reasons I picked a different approach to this. As hard as it is to be left by a husband/lover, to be a child waiting (so long that she is now grown) is much more heartbreaking and so nearly impossible to get over.

It was nice to stretch into poetry for this one, too. I don't think prose would have worked as well!

When I saw that you had commented, I reread this more from your eyes, and then hoped it hadn't cut too deeply. The situation is slightly different, but the feelings... I think the child not receiving the love she wants, needs and deserves is just heartbreaking, even if it's clear that it's the mother at fault here and not the child. *sigh*

Though it's set in a past era, I wanted it to be primarily about the feelings and the terrible position the narrator is in, which unfortunately could happen to almost anyone and still does. I ache for children who go through this, and that it's nearly impossible for part of them not to still be that child wanting that love and affirmation even when they're grown. It's a wound that is very hard to heal, both because of the pain and the unfairness involved. :(

This is heartbreaking. No matter how much sometimes I hate living here, or I am upset at having to do everything on my own, leaving my daughter is something I could never do. The imagery was very vivid and the imagery of the sea works very well with this theme, nice switch to it being a child and a mother rather than lovers too far apart.

I really am not into poetry but this one caught my interest. It flowed beautifully. It moves the reader, the emotion was evoked well. I love you turn of phrase throughout the poem. 'And yet (and yet)' It simply was lovely. A wonderful use of the prompt.